"We have to solve whatever's going on here," Zaire loudly spoke. "We have until tomorrow to fix this, or Andrew's doing it his way, and frankly, I don't want to witness his way. So talk."
Nathan, Jordan, and Beth looked up at Kian, Javier, and Zaire's towering figures from the couch with annoyed expressions.
"They're not talking," Javier said quietly.
"I can clearly see that, Javier," Zaire said. "This is what we're going to do. We'll start with Nathan's issue with Jordan, then move on to Nathan's issue with Beth. Understood?"
"Yeah, this is stupid," Nathan grumbled, rising only to be pushed back down by Kian. "You're lucky that scares me."
"So, you two were fine before Tuesday morning because the both of you went to the mall with Layla on Monday night. What happened between that time interval of eight hours?" Kian asked.
"Here's what happened. I was sleeping peacefully in my bed when Jordan barged into my room and demanded I go on a hike with him. I declined, but he started pelting me with water balloons and spraying his gun right into my eye. After that point, I was fully awake with no chance of me going back to sleep."
"Then we drove to Runyon Canyon, and he explained that this hike was for me to 'clear my head,' as if I needed any head-clearing at six in the morning. He then went on to say that the root of my problems is the closure I didn't get with Kelis."
"Of course, another problem pertaining to Kelis." Zaire sighed. "Why can't you stop bringing up Kelis, Jordan?"
"Until Nathan stops being in denial," Jordan answered.
"In what way am I being in denial?" Nathan asked, a sarcastic chuckle coming from him when Jordan failed to respond. "He doesn't even know what he's talking about."
"If she truly doesn't matter, why did you get upset when I mentioned her?" Jordan curiously inquired.
"Do you know how tiring it is when the one thing you want to do is move on, but your friends are constantly bringing your ex up?" Nathan asked, receiving looks of sympathy from everyone. "Everyone is talking about closure but fuck... That relationship took everything out of me. I'm trying my hardest to leave those memories in the past. Especially when they are painful memories I do not wish to relive."
"I am fine," Nathan said. The genuine tone of his voice provides some sort of clarity for his friends. "I'm not angry because you brought up Kelis. I'm angry because every time I take one step forward to move on, you take me three steps back by reminding me. It fucking sucks."
Jordan nodded as he processed the information. "I'm sorry. Not only for pushing you to talk but for ignoring how you've felt all these times when you said not to bring her up. It will not happen again."
Nathan appreciatively smiled and held his hand out for Jordan to dap him up. "Apology accepted, brother."
Jordan took his hand and brought him in for a hug.
"Well, that was nice. I'll see you guys in the studio tomorrow." Nathan quickly slid between Zaire and Kian to escape from the next topic. "I'll be in my room. Don't bother me."
"Nuh-uh," Kian reached forward to grab onto Nathan's wrist. "Sit."
Nathan huffed as he peered up at Kian's tall stature. "Screw you and your godlike features." He grumbled while sitting back down.
Nathan crossed his arms and looked up with an awkward smile. "Welp." He said to ease the tense silence. "This conversation is not nearly as easy to discuss as the last one. I say we take a lunch break and come back."
"No, you're going to sit and speak." Zaire chastised.
"Fuck it. Yes, Ellie, I did say I liked you." Nathan began, shocking Beth with his candor. "But I was drunk and confused at the time. Do I adore you in some way? Yes, but my feelings for you are far too complicated to act on."
"Why couldn't you have told me this one month ago?" She questioned.
"I didn't know what to say. As I said, I was confused and didn't want my confusion to transfer to you. I didn't want to say something I didn't mean either because you'd get hurt, and I'd die if my indecisiveness caused you pain."
"Where do we go from here?" Beth asked while looking at Nathan expectantly. "Are you sure of how you feel now?"
"No. And I'm not sure if I'll ever be." Nathan said. He quickly looked up and squinted his eyes. "I'm sorry, why are all of you still here? This is a private conversation." He asked his bandmates.
"We're here to confirm that every issue is solved. Continue talking." Javier said.
Nathan groaned but continued talking nonetheless. "You don't have to worry about it anymore. I'll make sure that any feelings I might have had are gone by the end of March." Nathan said.
Javier raised an eyebrow as he observed Beth's eyes cast downwards, her top row of teeth clamped down to meet her bottom lip, and her eyes blinking rapidly. "Huh," he mumbled quietly.
"Alright," she said, her smile big and wide. "Everything's fine and we can get back to work." She said before walking up the stairs and disappearing behind her bedroom door.
After Javier's eyes left her retreating figure, he followed Beth up the stairs and locked himself away in his room, leaving the socializing to his other bandmates.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Alright," Andrew clapped his hands. "I'm assuming that the beef between all of you is no longer present, and we're going to scrap the train wreck of last Thursday. Welcome to the first day of production."
"Woo!" Cheers rang out throughout the room.
"Zaire introduced a good format for the album last week. The album could begin with all love songs and then progress to darker themes. It leads into the interlude where you go to the sad songs."
"I like that, but I have some concerns. Wouldn't that jeopardize the pacing of the album? Bunching two moods into two separate parts of the album could get very boring. I'd get tired of listening to five happy love songs back to back." Kian added.
"Who said love songs had to be upbeat?" Andrew rhetorically asked. "There are ballads. All of Me by John Legend is a great example. Heartfelt lyrics, but the song uses dark and deep melodies. Those are the types of songs that make you cry. We want the listeners to cry in more ways than one. Tears of joy and tears of sorrow."
"Goddamn," Zaire mumbled, eliciting deep laughter from his friends.
"I'm sure Nathan has countless songs he's written. The most we have to do is touch up the lyrics and create the music for the words." Andrew said. "Nathaniel, do we have anything worthy in your legendary songbook?" He reached out and grabbed the worn-down journal.
Nathan angrily frowned and snatched it back. "Don't touch my book."
"Yeah, Andrew. What's wrong with you? Nobody gets to touch his songbook." Javier said.
"I've never heard of that rule. I'll keep it noted."
"I have Good News," Nathan spoke.
Zaire shook his head. "We recorded that already, and it doesn't match the album's concept."
"It could be an interlude?" Kian suggested.
"A five-minute interlude, Kian? Really?" Zaire deadpanned, unintentionally causing the group to burst into deep fits of giggles.
"Sorry," Kian blushed. "I really like that song."
"What about Renee's song?" Javier suggested. "Not to bring up Kelis because I know that bothers you, but that is an amazingly good song."
Nathan noticed the nervous look Javier had and smiled reassuringly. "You're fine Javier. Mentioning Kelis in the studio is appropriate. I mean, the whole album is about her anyway." He said. "It is a personal song, but I'm willing to put it in. Can I propose something?"
"What's on your mind?"
"Can I be the only one with vocals on this song? This song is very important to me, and I want to be the only one singing it." He said. "A solo ballad would be pretty good, too, since it can balance out all the high-energy songs at the beginning."
"That's cool," The rest of the band members agreed simultaneously, immediately weirdly looking at each other afterward.
"Really? Oh, thank god." Nathan let out a sigh of relief. "I thought you guys would think I was a selfish prick."
"This song means so much more to you than we will ever know. So if you want to sing it alone, it's okay with us." Kian vocalized his support.
"I wrote this song when I was an itty-bitty sixteen-year-old, and my voice hadn't fully matured yet. So don't judge too harshly as my voice cracks and whatnot." Nathan preempted.
As they hoarded around Nathan's phone to listen to the Dropbox file, Nathan cringed at his premature voice. "Oh, good lord." He winced at the off-pitch chorus. "Why did I think that sounded good?"
As the song finished, Nathan looked around and rolled his eyes at the smirk on his friend's face. "Fuck you guys,"
"Corey should be coming in a few minutes, but we can continue."
"Did we finish Entertainer?" Javier asked.
"Zaire never finished his verse," Nathan replied. "Even though it's been months since I started that track."
"I've been busy," Zaire shrugged.
"Doing what?"
"You in my business?" Zaire looked Nathan up and down.
"Pull up the song and finish it, please," Andrew said before he excused himself to answer his phone.
"Ready?" Nathan spoke into the intercom.
"Yessir," Zaire said as he adjusted the headphones.
"Punch in after down. I'll adjust it after."
"Thought that you were smarter. I'm ashamed for you. I knew it right away when you stopped lovin' me. It happened when your touch wasn't enough for me."
"Nice," Nathan said. "Kian, you showed me a song a couple of days ago to the beat I made. Is it ready?"
"I'm stuck on the chorus right now."
"What'd you write about?" Nathan asked.
"The beat you sent reminded me of the songs at the end of movies. I assumed this was going to be the finale of the album." Kian explained while Nathan nodded. "So, during the album, you tell your story with your relationship and how it collapsed. I was thinking this could be the song that put everything to rest."
"I have something better," Nathan added. "I mentioned it briefly in Reflections, but the line 'too close to the stars' referenced Icarus."
"What is that?" Javier inquired.
"It's a Greek myth about a man who gets makeshift wings from his father. His father warned him not to fly too close to the sun because the heat would melt the wax and cause the wings to disintegrate. But, because of his pride, Icarus does not listen and eventually falls to his death."
"It's similar to how my father warned me not to become too attached, but that's a story for another time." Nathan laughed nervously. "This story should be portrayed in the songs. The first few love songs represent the flight and Icarus' ascent. Almost as if you're so in love that you're on—
"Cloud nine," the four of them said in unison.
"The middle of the album, where the conflict is introduced, represents the sun burning Icarus' wings. The second part of the album represents the fall. And the last song represents the death of the relationship, just like it represents the death of Icarus. In the end, they both rest in peace."
"That is genius," Zaire high-fived Nathan. "How did you think of that?"
"It randomly came to me. You'd be surprised how many things I think of at two in the morning."
Three hours later, Kian and Nathan created half a verse and a solid outro. Andrew was delighted with the outcome and allowed them to take the rest of the day off and go home.
Zaire smiled at the sight of his mom cooking on his phone. "Hey, mama,"
"What do you want, Zaire?"
"Damn, I can't say hi to my mother?" He chuckled. "How are you guys? Are you staying safe out there? This Covid thing is getting out of hand."
"Yes, we are very safe. You should be worried about yourself. The cases are increasing in America. Are you washing your hands frequently?"
"Yes mama," he comically groaned.
"I'm just making sure. You already get bad allergies, and I don't want you to get infected."
"I've only been to the studio and the house recently. I hope this doesn't get too serious because we'd have to postpone the tour."
"I know. We can only hope."
"Is that pizza?" Zaire joked. He wheezed and threw his head back when his mom glared at him.
"Do you know nothing about your culture? It's roti. You've eaten it a million times."
"First of all, I was kidding. Second of all, I have a million cultures since your ancestry is full of a billion cultures."
"It's only Moroccan and Indian." She deadpanned.
"Too many ethnicities. Too much confusion. I used to get cold sweats when I had to identify my race on exams." Zaire admitted.
"It's not that difficult. Half Asian and half black."
"Hey, Zaire. How are you doing?" Joel asked.
"Better now that the Lakers have dropped to third place," Zaire smirked.
"Oh, here we go," Joel said. "You are the biggest hater."
"I don't want to hear it." Yvette hushed them both. She glared at Joel as she pointed a wooden spoon in his direction. "I told you to clean your dish..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"And one!" Kian shouted as the ball rolled into the hoop.
"Damn," Nathan panted and rested his hands on his knees. "Good shit, bro." He high-fived Kian and collapsed onto the chair next to Beth. "Your birthday's in a couple of days. Are you throwing a party?"
Beth snickered and resumed typing on her laptop. "Pfft. I still have nightmares about the last time I threw a party. I'm never going through that stress again."
"C'mon, it's the big twenty-one. You have to at least go out to a bar or something."
"Madison's having a big party for her birthday. Maybe it can be a joint birthday party." Kian suggested.
"'Nuh-uh, Madison told me what she had planned. I don't even have an outfit for this party."
"We'll buy you one," Nathan said. "You and Madison are turning twenty-one, and your birthdays are only two days apart. It makes sense. I will not let you stay in and work like you do every day." He shot up and grabbed her laptop. "Let's go shopping."
"Oh my," she sighed.
Kian looked up from his phone and sent a teasing smile her way. "Good luck with that."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Did we only come to this mall to shop for you?" Beth asked as she watched him put a pair of Jordan's back on the rack.
"Sorry," he smiled. "Do you have any preferences? Any specific stores you want to check out?"
"Dior?"
"Oh, you're a big baller, huh? Alright, Pop Smoke." He teased. "C'mon girl, ball out."
She playfully pushed him away. "Shut up," She said as they both entered the store.
"Remember, the color theme is blue. I don't want to see you pick up anything that even remotely resembles red."
"I don't even like red that much."
"Your closet says otherwise. Do you have any blue shoes? Or any heels?"
"I don't have any blue heels, but I have blue Converse's."
"Conver– come on now. You can't pull up in Dior and finish the outfit with some converses. That is unacceptable." He furrowed his eyebrows.
Beth chortled at the heavy disappointment in his voice. "Okay, you need to relax, fashion police. Converse's are not that bad. You're acting like they are hideous."
"They aren't hideous. I own a couple of pairs myself, but they aren't the type of shoes you wear to your birthday party. Let alone a party as sophisticated as this one."
"What do you suggest?"
"Nike Dunks or some Air Maxes. Or you can spice it up and get some Jordans."
"Well, I have some dresses that I think will look good. Excuse me, can we have a dressing room?" She asked an employee.
"Of course," the employee smiled.
"We? Why would I be going?"
"So you can tell me if it looks good or not." She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the room. "There's a whole couch in here. Why is this necessary?"
"It's Dior, baby," he said in a valley girl voice.
"Don't touch anything," she said before disappearing behind the curtain.
"You know, making a guy with severe ADHD sit and wait for you to change is a little cruel, don't you think?"
"Are you not on your medication?"
"I couldn't take them this week because I didn't have breakfast because we were in the studio."
Beth opened up the curtain. "How is this?" She stepped out in a long lace dress.
"It's pretty, but it's not the type of dress you'd want to wear to a party. That's something you'd wear to a wedding."
"Got it," she muttered, slipping behind the curtain to try on the next dress.
"I want your belly and that summer feeling. Getting washed away in you." The calming voice of Harry Styles played through the speakers.
"Breathe me in, breathe me out. I don't know if I could ever go without." Nathan sang along as his voice gradually got louder.
"Nathan no," Beth warned.
"Watermelon sugar high! Watermelon sugar high! Watermelon sugar high! Watermelon sugar high!" He belted. "I just wanna taste it. I just wanna taste it. Watermelon sugar high."
"Excuse me, sir, some other customers are complaining. We're going to have to ask you to lower your voice." A female employee said.
"Sorry," he blushed.
"So embarrassing," Beth mumbled. "What about this one?"
Nathan looked up from his phone and locked his vision on the sky-blue satin dress. His eyes wasted no time traveling up her features, only stopping when they landed upon her majestically diverse hazel eyes.
"This looks amazing." He said once he noticed that he hadn't replied.
"This is the one?"
"Yeah," he said breathlessly, quickly clearing his throat to maintain his composure. "This is the one."
"Okay, cool, let's go,"
Nathan could not stop staring at her body. He struggled mightily to keep his eyes away as though a spell had been cast on him. He felt his eyes were magnetic, and her body was the opposing magnetic force he couldn't help but attract.
Only when the curtain closed again did he look away and snap out of his deep trance.
"Are you okay, Nate? You've been staring for a really long time."
He quickly nodded his head and stood up. "Yeah, I'm good. What about these shoes?" He picked up the B23 Hi-Tops.
"These are cute."
"You want them?"
"Yes, but they are very expensive—
"Can we get these in a size 37, please?"
"Nathan, I'm not paying for those shoes."
"Relax, Ellie."
"Here you go," the employee came back with the shoebox. "Your total is $4,320.25." The cashier said.
Before Beth could protest, Nathan handed the cashier his card and grabbed the bag.
"You didn't have to buy me the clothes," she said as they left the store.
"I did because I dragged you here and promised to buy you an outfit. Now shush."
Shortly after, they drove to a Christian Louboutin store, where they found matching heels for her outfit.
"Nathan, you can't just stop taking your meds. You're going to start having withdrawals again." Beth sighed. "I understand if you miss the time on studio days, but there's no reason why you missed it today."
"I forgot." He lowly mumbled, feeling disappointed in himself due to Beth's stern voice.
"I put two alarms on your phone for when you need to eat breakfast and when you need to take your medicine. What were you doing this morning?"
"I was on 2k trying to get that double rep," He chuckled. "I might've broken a few controllers, but I got it." He went to high-five her and immediately put it back down when he saw the scowl on her face.
"This isn't a frickin' joke, Nate. You are dealing with a highly addictive drug."
"Stop worrying all the time. I've been taking these medications for years. I know how to work them." He said. "My doctor said I can go a week without it. I'll just have to reset my schedule. Calm down."
Beth exhaled deeply and closed her eyes as she approached the garage. "All you do is stress me out." She said as she walked into the house.
"Ooh, you made her mad," Javier said with a little smirk.
"She'll be alright," Nathan waved off.
"How are you guys?"
"Good?" Nathan gave a suspicious grin. "Is there something I'm missing?"
"You noticed something weird with Beth when we had that talk the other day?"
"Not really. I said what I had to say, and now that's done."
"She seemed disappointed when you said you'd get rid of your feelings."
"Javier, please don't start this. I can't deal with Zaire, Jordan, and you. That's too much for my brain."
"I'm just saying, what if she reciprocates those feelings?"
"I won't have to worry about that because she doesn't," Nathan explained. "And she'll never have feelings for me."
"Nathan, use your brain and think. She's already given you hints." Javier says before getting up and walking away.
As Nathan scanned the back of Javier's frame, he could only say one thing.
"Huh?"